By Lena McMillan, Family Support Development Officer
January’s book choice for our group was ‘Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times’ by Katherine May.
Described by its publishers as ‘a poignant and comforting meditation on the fallow periods of life, times when we must retreat to care for and repair ourselves’ this seemed like a very apt January read for our Book Group and was our first delve into a non-fiction book.
The author takes the season of winter – ‘a season in the cold’ – and uses it to discuss the wintering we can experience at any time in our lives, which she describes as: ‘…feeling rejected, sidelined, blocked from progress, or cast into the role of an outsider. Perhaps it results from an illness; perhaps from a life event such as a bereavement or the birth of a child; perhaps it comes from humiliation or failure.’
May talks about life as being cyclical rather than linear and we chatted about the patterns of weeks and seasons as well as stages of life such as working, raising young families, being retired etc. Some readers thought the author used different chronologies within the chapters to express these cycles; others found this aspect of the book disjointed and confusing.
Throughout the book, May looks to nature and other cultures, to learn about how they winter, and offers us a smorgasbord of wintering wisdoms and preparations to learn from. We explored what wintering means to each of us and talked a bit out how we winter and the bravery we show in emerging from our winters – one member of the group said that getting up and keeping going everyday is bravery in itself.
Scoring an impressive 8.4 out of 10 with our group, this book was generally very well received and led to a great discussion. People shared how they identified with the idea of wintering and in what ways they winter – around this time of year but also when the rollercoaster that is life throws something at them. Half of our group have already gifted or intend to gift their copies to someone they know – this read is definitely highly recommended!
Some quotes from our readers:
‘An honest, humble account where she shared her experiences.’
‘Not quite a ten as it’s a bit disjointed. Loved the different topics and I identified with lots of it – this time of year and how I respond to it.’
‘I connected with so much of it, it’s what I’ve been doing recently, being quiet and peaceful within myself.’
‘I found it difficult to get into at first and thought it was confusing, jumping from one thing to another.’
‘I’ve not finished it yet but I think that reflects the nature of the book – there’s no real beginning, middle or end or characters to get involved with – so I’ve enjoyed dipping my toe in. There was lots I didn’t identify with but the empathy and self-care were nice wee nuggets.’